The invention relates to munitions and in particular to ammunition feeding mechanisms for machine guns.
Machine guns primarily use large magazines that hold belted ammunition. The large magazines may hold 100 or 200 rounds. These large magazines are attached to the magazine support of the machine gun. Under rough handling conditions, the magazine support fails to securely hold the large ammunition magazines. This problem has existed with the M249 machine gun since it was fielded in the 1980s.
Select machine guns, such as the M249, may also use a small magazine (30 rounds of unbelted ammunition) as a secondary ammunition supply. When using the small magazine, the magazine is inserted into a magazine well attached to the gun. The magazine well includes a rectangular opening for receiving the small magazine. The magazine well is attached to the side of the receiver and to the magazine support. The magazine support is attached at one end to an underside of the gun receiver and at the other end to the magazine well. Of course, the large magazines (100 or 200 rounds) cannot use the magazine well.
Various changes have been made to the large ammunition magazines to solve the lack of support problem. Different plastics have been used to construct the magazines. Metal stiffeners have been inserted in the magazines to keep them from bending. Bending of the large magazine beyond a certain point causes the large magazine to pop out of the magazine support. These fixes have only slightly increased the magazine retention capabilities. Notably, these fixes cause the magazine support to bend and the large magazines to pop out. Thus, there is a need for a device that prevents the magazines from bending and popping out of the magazine support.